Ideas can be these wild things, like lightning bugs, that flit about, lighting up and fading out. We need a jar where we can put them. Ideas are the supply, the fuel for our practice. Since we work out of abundance, and we know that we won’t run out of…

As we make things, our brains make connections. When we follow those connections, we find more connections. We live in an abundant universe, but we have to know how to access it. I’m not talking about some weird guru stuff (…though, I do highly recommend starting a meditation practice). No…

The universe is full of infinitely good ideas and the best way to access them is to practice our craft. There are only so many good ideas out there, right? As I mentioned previously, we often fail to put our best ideas into our practice. When this happens, when we decide not to work on an idea or not to put the idea out there, it’s because we are operating…

Sometimes, we mistakenly believe we aren’t good enough to work on our best ideas. Many years ago, I had an idea for a story. It involved a priest who received a confession from a criminal, but the priest was the victim of the very crime he was hearing about in the confessional. As he listens, the priest experiences a moral crisis. …

“Yet” is not “never.” We can keep writing, painting, sculpting, honing, working. We can build, we can grow, we can make, remake and remake again. My writing has been flagging, y’all. I’ve found other things to concentrate on. Mostly healthy things, to be honest. Meditation. Spin cycling. But I’ve also distracted myself with new apps (loving Craft and Things, by the way). If I look at my stats in Scrivener or in Ulysses, I’m not…

Often we forget that part of compassion is self-compassion. — It’s September 2017. I’m sitting in a training session for diversity practitioners, a group of people committed to creating more inclusive and equitable schools. I’m a white, heterosexual, cisgender man. I’m sporting a pink polo shirt-tucked into my khaki shorts-and my Chaco-tan is prominent. The leader of the training tells…

I’m doing my best teaching in the midst of a global pandemic with these 3 key concepts. — I’m an introvert, so the joke around my house is that I’m living my best life now! But it’s not a joke. It’s true. While the world outside my door is a scary place full of heartache and frustration, inside my house, I’m doing some of my best work. Writing…

Things are hard right now. We’re isolated. — I have a son. His name is Gus. He’s been living with me (and his mom) for just over nine years now. Sometimes, I write him little letters. 8 April 2020 Dear Gus, Yesterday morning, I was working upstairs because we’re all stuck here in the house under threat of…

A Practice for the Pandemic Era — My street looks strange these days. We live on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs of Houston, an idyllic kind of place with lots of trees and nearly as many kids. Normally, on a weekend, we’d see children, from toddlers up through fifth graders, running around the neighborhood together. …